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Prominent Drupal, PHP Developer Kicked From the Drupal Project Over Unconventional Sex Life (techcrunch.com) 656

An anonymous Slashdot reader writes: Last week the Drupal community erupted in anger after its leader, Dries Buytaert, asked Larry Garfield, a prominent Drupal contributor and long-time member of the Drupal and PHP communities, "to leave the Drupal project." Buytaert claims he did this "because it came to my attention that he holds views that are in opposition with the values of the Drupal project." A huge furor has erupted in response -- not least because the reason clearly has much to do with Garfield's unconventional sex life. [Garfield is into BDSM, and is a member of the Gorean community, "a community who are interested in, and/or participate in, elaborate sexual subjugation fantasies, in which men are inherently superior to women."] Buytaert made his post (which is now offline) in response after Larry went public, outing himself to public opinion. Buytaert retorted (excerpt available via TechCrunch): "when a highly-visible community member's private views become public, controversial, and disruptive for the project, I must consider the impact [...] all people are created equally. [sic] I cannot in good faith support someone who actively promotes a philosophy that is contrary to this [...] any association with Larry's belief system is inconsistent with our project's goals [...] I recused myself from the Drupal Association's decision [to dismiss Garfield from his conference role] [...] Many have rightfully stated that I haven't made a clear case for the decision [...] I did not make the decision based on the information or beliefs conveyed in Larry's blog post." TechCrunch columnist Jon Evans goes on to "unpack" the questions that naturally arise from these "Code of Conduct conflicts."
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Prominent Drupal, PHP Developer Kicked From the Drupal Project Over Unconventional Sex Life

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  • by Revek ( 133289 ) on Monday March 27, 2017 @05:52PM (#54122531)

    It seems like they don't practice what they preach. Sounds like SJW idiocracy. Their security guy must be a real closet case. As in preachy/crazy

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward

      "Sounds like SJW idiocracy." Not really, it sounds like someone in charge didn't like the bad PR that public knowledge of a risque sexual proclivity by one of their higher-ups MIGHT possibly bring.

      It's far apart from "SJW" when someone in a position of power is censoring people's lives outside of the workplace. That would be far more typical in corporate cultures than activist cultures.

      It all kind of hinges on how Larry's alternative sex life actually became public knowledge. If Larry didn't advertise, t

      • by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 27, 2017 @07:09PM (#54123121)

        It says right there in the Techcrunch article, in a quote from Larry himself:

        ...someone, I do not know who, stumbled across my profile on a private, registration-required website for alternative-lifestyle people that information made it to the Community Working Group...

        • by Geeky ( 90998 ) on Tuesday March 28, 2017 @04:19AM (#54125409)

          In that case it's invasion of his privacy. Someone's been cyberstalking him.

          If you're on a site like, say, Fetlife, that should be understood to be private. If you run a personal blog talking about that stuff, then fair game.

          Maybe he has a case for sexual discrimination - his sexual preferences, as long as they're acted out only with consenting adults - should not be anyone's business but his.

    • by elrous0 ( 869638 ) on Monday March 27, 2017 @06:18PM (#54122731)

      It looks like everyone not fully embracing the SJW agenda is being purged in tech and entertainment industries in the wake of the Trump hysteria. People thought Tim Allen was crazy for joking to Jimmy Kimmel that being even a moderate conservative in Hollywood was starting to feel like being a Jew in 1930's Germany. But he wasn't just shooting his mouth off. One of the first things the Nazis did with Jews was ban them from most employment.

      Let's hope sanity ultimately prevails before we cross into truly dangerous territory here.

      • Politics has been becoming increasingly polarized for quite some time now. Trump's nomination and election is part of that trend, but it was certainly not the start of it. Unfortunately, people in the middle get attacked from both sides.

        • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

          by dbIII ( 701233 )
          No, it's not new. Americans have been acting like this for a long time with all that puritan outrage bullshit despite being the land of commercial sleaze.
          • by Baloroth ( 2370816 ) on Monday March 27, 2017 @10:39PM (#54124407)

            No, it's not new. Americans have been acting like this for a long time with all that puritan outrage bullshit despite being the land of commercial sleaze.

            It's not new, but what is (fairly) new is that it's now coming from the nominally "liberal" and "progressive" political spectrum in America. It's the Horseshoe effect [wikipedia.org]. Same reason many people on both sides of the political spectrum oppose prostitution: conservatives oppose it because they believe exploiting women for sex is immoral, and liberals because... well, actually, the exact same thing, really.

    • Thanks to Slashdot, I know what the SJW acronym's for... but BDSM?

      I mean, I was guessing bondage something sadomasochism, but I had to look it up. Am I getting my Cool Card pulled? Again?

      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        It is actually embarassing enough that people that 'think about' / 'write about' or even 'fight for' equality and human rights get defamed as SJWs ... and that in a country that invented the term 'political correctness' ... just my thoughts.

        Is it realy so hard to live and let live with out putting 'brand' labels on other people?

    • Dries post is still up:

      http://buytaert.net/living-our... [buytaert.net]
  • Today I learned that Drupal had rules about sex. It must be for a plug-in.

  • Crazy (Score:5, Insightful)

    by markdavis ( 642305 ) on Monday March 27, 2017 @06:00PM (#54122585)

    >Buytaert claims he did this "because it came to my attention that he holds views that are in opposition with the values of the Drupal project. [...]in which men are inherently superior to women."]

    This is crazy. Who cares about his sex life? Aren't we above that type of thing??? Besides, such role-playing sex fantasy has nothing to do with men being "superior" to women, in fact, it is often the other way around and still has nothing to do with "real life".

    This is not a social club or religion, it is a set of computer program tools. It would be difference if his CODING or PROJECT philosophy ran contrary to the the group, because that is actually related to the project. Even then there should be some amount of tolerance.

    I abhor some of the political correctness going around, but generally I am intolerant of intolerance. Hopefully others in the Drupal project agree.

    • Re:Crazy (Score:5, Insightful)

      by jwhyche ( 6192 ) on Monday March 27, 2017 @06:15PM (#54122705) Homepage

      Exactly. Who cares about his sex life? If getting wrapped in leather and hog tied with a butt plug up his ass is his thing, more power too him. I don't see how anything happening inside his bed room is any of any ones' business.

      Just remember the safe word is "hurt me mama."

  • Here is the correct link to Dries' blog post on the subject: http://buytaert.net/living-our-values [buytaert.net]

    Irony is that the 'living our values' blog post is anything but living our values in the Drupal community.
  • by sinij ( 911942 ) on Monday March 27, 2017 @06:05PM (#54122627)
    SJW only allow missionary position, anything else is sinful and displeases misogyny God.
    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward

      No, to an SJW all penetration is rape.

      • To some SJWs, love is also that same 4-letter word - rape. "Societal expectations of roles for people in love keep women in bondage"...
  • by elrous0 ( 869638 ) on Monday March 27, 2017 @06:07PM (#54122639)

    They got Colin Moriarty a couple of weeks ago at Kinda Funny Games too. Trump's election has produced a SJW hysteria where even conventional conservative views are no longer tolerated anywhere in the tech/entertainment industry in particular (or Silicon Valley/Southern California in general). Everyone not fully embracing the SJW agenda is being purged from their jobs. This poor guy got fired just for participating in sex roleplay that the SJW's don't like.

    • by OrangeTide ( 124937 ) on Monday March 27, 2017 @06:22PM (#54122765) Homepage Journal

      BDSM is a conventional conservative view now?

      Did I just pull a Rip Van Winkle?

  • Right back at ya (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 27, 2017 @06:07PM (#54122641)

    "when a highly-visible community member's private views become public, controversial, and disruptive for the project, I must consider the impact"

    I guess you'll be resigning now then.

  • by FrankHaynes ( 467244 ) on Monday March 27, 2017 @06:16PM (#54122713)

    What if a male employee/contributor were into being dominated by women? Would that be OK?

    • by Type44Q ( 1233630 ) on Monday March 27, 2017 @06:21PM (#54122751)
      Of course, just not the reverse - it isn't compatible with the current unofficial official narrative.
  • by sehlat ( 180760 ) on Monday March 27, 2017 @06:16PM (#54122719)

    Binary Solution Set

    If Consensual, it's nobody's business but the participants, and certainly not the business of the project.

    If Non-Consensual, call the police.

  • by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 27, 2017 @06:17PM (#54122727)

    To be outed as a Drupal developer.

  • by 110010001000 ( 697113 ) on Monday March 27, 2017 @06:22PM (#54122761) Homepage Journal
    Isn't anyone who develops using Drupal or PHP into BSDM?
  • People should be free to believe and fantasize as they want. No one should be excluded for have different views. It's too much of a slippery slope. People should only be accountable for their actions and to a limited extent their ability to reasonably interact with others by the established consensus of a common code of conduct.

    Just because a belief isn't from an established religion doesn't mean it can be arbitrarily discounted by the majority. There is way too much of this Social Justice bullshit going o

  • Open Source has plenty of infighting over belief systems. But this? Say what? We are talking about an excellent developer\contributor. So what if he is into that style of BDSM. So are the adult consenting women. What exactly is Dries trying to communicate here? Intolerance? Is he a Christian? If so, so what. This is the height of dumnfuckery and makes the whole project look bad. How does making the project look bad fit in with values of the project? Because that is what Dries is doing.

    Alternative: There i
  • by MSG ( 12810 ) on Monday March 27, 2017 @06:34PM (#54122883)

    The URL above is incorrect. Buytaert's response is here:

    http://buytaert.net/living-our... [buytaert.net]

  • Gor is both a lifestyle and a philosophy to some. To others it's just a way to enjoy BDSM or power exchange sex play. It's founded on a set of books written by John Norman that state repeatedly that pretty much all women secretly want to be enslaved and brutally raped by a Real Man. This is at direct odds with the "Safe, Sane Consensual" rule espoused by most power exchange communities. To truly and deeply participate in a Gorean lifestyle is to utterly disavow gender equality, at least in those circles.
  • I'm trying to keep track here. Do we have to remove Gorean from the Gender list now?
  • by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 27, 2017 @07:18PM (#54123197)

    Well, on the bright side, this tells me to stay far, far away from the Drupal project and anything it produces. They're far more interested in pushing their political agenda (or virtue signalling, at least) than putting out quality software, which is a rather massive strike against trusting their code, particularly in an era where security is so important and many are willing to go to extreme lengths to achieve their political goals.

  • WTF? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Opportunist ( 166417 ) on Monday March 27, 2017 @07:18PM (#54123207)

    Why the fuck would I care about a developer's sex life? Who gives a shit how he fucks as long as he doesn't fuck up the code he delivers?

  • by don_combatant ( 1039232 ) on Monday March 27, 2017 @07:18PM (#54123209)
    I remember the days when it was republicans and conservatives discriminating against people because of their sexual preferences.
  • Easy decision: is it legal? If not, let him face justice. Otherwise, it looks like a ban for opinions. Fine, but Drupal will have to set up a list of allowed or forbidden opinions. That will not be pretty.
  • Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Monday March 27, 2017 @07:49PM (#54123491)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • If he wasn't attempting to impose his preferences and was instead having a sex life with consenting partners and a consenting community, what business is it of the project or Buytaert?

    There's a whole world of sexual preferences out there that may or may not offend some part of the community. Furries? Diapers/"adult infants?" Feet? Dominance/Submission (which I think is distinct from BDSM)? Homosexuality? Poly?

    Heck, I'm not into that BDSM and even I know that there are wide variations even in the BDSM community, some of which Buytaert probably wouldn't even care about. Just offhand I know that there are people into spanking, piercings/body mods (is this tied in?), rope bondage, and probably things I've never heard of or considered along with the "traditional" portrayal of BDSM with restraints and floggers, crops etc.

    I'm a vanilla white boy from the midwestern suburbs, but I'm pretty sure that taken as a whole those "alternative sexuality" communities are overall much more accepting of kinks (YKIOKBINMK) and also more sensitive to people being coerced or (involuntarily) mistreated than almost all of the Good Citizens that I went to High School with.

    (YKIOKBINMK = Your Kink Is OK But Is Not My Kink)

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